Ontario — Airports

Toronto Pearson International Airport

Thanks to both its proximity to Canada’s largest city and its location in the country’s geographic center, Toronto Pearson International Airport offers more flights and welcomes more passengers than any other airport in the nation. In 2011, the total number of passengers entering the airport’s two terminals exceeded 32 million. Toronto Pearson International Airport’s long list of non-stop flight destinations includes over 150 international cities as well as virtually every other airport in Canada. US cities served include Chicago, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, and Newark.

A giant duty-free shop is just one of the numerous shops, restaurants, comfortable lounges, currency exchanges, and other amenities awaiting Toronto Pearson International Airport passengers.

Budget, National, Dollar, Avis, Alamo, and Hertz all offer car rental at Toronto Pearson International Airport, whose other transportation options include more than 250 limousines and 350 taxis parked and ready to go. It takes roughly 20 minutes for the Toronto Transport Commission Airport Rocket buses to travel between Kipling Subway Station and the airport, which also offers direct bus service to Laurence West Subway Station. Passengers can also board complimentary shuttle buses to several Toronto hotels or buses bound for Niagara Falls and countless other cities throughout Ontario.

Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport

The airport serving Canada’s national capital is the sixth busiest in the country, with more than 4.5 million passengers having entered its gates in 2011. This award-winning airport stands slightly more than six miles south of central Ottawa, in Riverside South. Although Ottawa is Canada’s largest city and not a major airline hub, its airport nonetheless acts as the main gateway to Iqaluit and the rest of Canada’s eastern Arctic. In addition to its popular Rapidair flights to and from Toronto and Montréal, Macdonald-Cartier International Airport also offers non-stop flights across North America and the Caribbean, and to the European cities of Frankfurt and London.

The airport features two AerRianta International Duty Free International stores, nearly a dozen places to eat and drink, ATMs, two comfortable lounges, a chapel, and an international currency exchange.

National, Budget, Hertz, Enterprise, and Avis all supply rental cars in the parkade across from the airport’s main passenger terminal. Customers should make rental car arrangements at least 48 hours before their arrival, especially those wanting to reserve one of the airport’s limited number of wheelchair-accessible vehicles. OC Transpo bus route 97 is the main public transportation route connecting Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport with other city bus stations and the O-Train. Taxi service is also readily available, but fares to downtown Ottawa hotels cost up to twice or three times as much as those to hotels closer to the airport.